It would have to be very strange for me to post a cat video. Voice exactly like a human child. The video however appears to be from Russia, so shouldn't it be Nyet!?
Friday, September 30, 2011
Vincent
After starting out as an animator at Disney, Tim Burton got his first big break directing this stop-motion short. The Narrator is Vincent Price (of course). All the hallmarks of Burton's later work can be seen here. There are echos of it in "Beetle Juice", and of course "Nightmare before Christmas."
Thursday, September 29, 2011
The Cat Came Back
If you have kids, make sure they see this cartoon at least once. A classic animated short by Cordell Barker. And yes, the song will probably be stuck in your head for days! Richard Conde's "Mr Johnson" vocalizations remind me of Rowan Atkinson's "Mr. Bean."
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Muppets Unplugged
A rare chance to see all the Muppet performers singing without their Muppets. They sang this medley of Jim Hensen's favorite songs at his memorial service in 1990. It's fascinating to put faces to the voices we know so well. It's also very touching to see these people honor the man who shaped all their careers.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Bon Appetit
Bon Appetit from Kilogramme on Vimeo. A little girl goes to great lengths to get her ice-cream back.
Ray Harryhausen
This is a compilation of every (?) stop motion creature created by the great Ray Harryhausen.
Before computers and Jurassic Park, this is how it was done, one frame at a time by one guy, working mostly in his garage.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Jean-Luc
An funny animated cartoon short, using John Kricfalusi-like extremes. Probably NSFW, but just barely.
Teaching Poodles To Fly.
Raul's wild kingdom. This is a classic from Wierd Al Yankovic's "UHF". Nature's suction cups. LOL.
Slow-Motion Slinky
Sometimes physics contradicts our intuition. In slow motion the slinky appears to temporarily defy gravity. If you have ever tried to animate something springy, you'll know that getting it to look real takes a lot of forethought and some knowledge of how physics work.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Batman: Year One
It looks like the new animated feature film "Batman: Year One" will be revisiting a look, closer to the earlier Bruce Timm work which made "Batman: The Animated Series" so great. (I could never get into the look of the WBs "The Batman") It seems like a good cast, with Bryan Cranston, Benjamin McKenzie, Eliza Dushku, and Katee Sackoff. It's based on the Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli comic, which I will now go and re-read.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Chicken Logo
WAY back in the 1980s, when I worked in-house at a screen-print company, I was asked to spend 2 hours creating a logo and mascot for a one-off t-shirt. Not my best work mind you, just one more task in a busy day. Since then it became the signage and mascot for Pollard's Chicken, a fairly successful chain of restaurants in the mid-Atlantic area. Moral,... do your best on even your quickest work, or it has a way of haunting you. Even more so, as each reproduction drifts off-model...
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
The Great Cognito
Long before computers allowed us to morph everything, claymation animator Will Vinton was producing cool shorts like this one with painstaking frame by frame stop motion. Vinton and his studio would later go on to create the California Raisin commercials, and "The Noid" for Domino's Pizza.
He later created several TV specials, and contributed to Michael Jackson's "Captain EO" and "Moonwalker." Now-a-days this sort of short would be done with 3d software. Back in the 70's it was brute force animation with just clay and a camera, and a lot of patience.
Chuck Close
No computer art here, this guy is old-school all the way. To my mind Chuck Close is the greatest living portrait painter,...and he is face-blind. He has prosopagnosia, and literally can not recognize the 3d faces of people he knows well. He uses this to his advantage by systematically breaking down the details that make up the whole of each face. His style has ranged from hyper-photorealism, earlier in his career, to one where the close-up details are tiny, loose abstractions, but the whole looks very recognizable. To call his later work impressionistic would be an over simplification. A big motivation to adopt this later style was the "event", (a seizure) which left him mostly paralyzed from the neck down. He now uses a variety of contraptions, including a modified forklift to allow him to complete his huge canvases. If you get a chance to see his work in person, do.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
John Belushi Skylab is falling
With the NASA satellite UARS about to crash to Earth, John Belushi reminds us that it's happened before. This is comedy from the 70's kids, long before there was a "The Daily Show." By the way, Kelly Freas, who we talked about last week, designed the original mission patch for Skylab featured here.
(Thanks to Mike Schley and David Johnson who bird-dogged this clip.)
Phil Trumbo
Also teaching at VCU, when I was a student, Phil Trumbo directed the animated sequences in the opening of Pee-Wee's playhouse. See his current reel below.
Nuit Blanche
Monday, September 19, 2011
"Boilerplate" Robot served with Teddy Roosevelt, saved Pancho Villa.
Boilerplate, a victorian era, 19th century robot, who fought with Teddy Roosevelt, and served in WWI. The concept trailer above is brilliant. There is also a book, comics, and a website. The trove of historical photos is a treat. Word is that J.J. Abrams is developing a movie about him. I believe I want to see that.
"The Dark Knight" - Anatomy of an Action Sequence
The Batmobile, aka the Tumbler.
An excellent break-down of the visual language and continuity of the big chase sequence in "The Dark Knight." This is the kind of stuff you learn in film school. Jim Emerson of the Chicago Sun Times 1st installment in a series of 3. I can't wait for the next one.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Steve Segal Animation Reel
My favorite teacher at VCU was Steve Segal. This is his current animation reel. He taught animation and animation history. He later went on to work on movies like The Brave Little Toaster, several Pixar films, and even did work for Pee Wee's Playhouse. His early work in the 70s, on early computer generated animation and in stop motion was ground breaking. Along with Phil Trumbo he created the stop motion feature film Futropolis. You probably have not seen it,... but you have seen it's influence in a lot of the music videos of the 80s, and in Futurama. Here is an interview with Steve by Terry Gross on Fresh Air.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Frank Kelly Freas
This video features a good look at some of the work of the late artist Frank Kelly Freas.
Signed copies of his two folio books sit on the shelf next to my desk in the studio.
I met him on several occasions in the late 70s and early 80s when I was just starting out as an illustrator, and he offered this pushy kid great encouragement, and a good number of painting tips. I was first introduced when he had a retrospective at the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk Va. An amazing talent and a really nice guy. The Dean of Science Fiction Illustrators.
Awesome new video search site!
showmenonstop.com This great new site lets you search YouTube for videos, but then auto-plays them one after another full-size in your browser window. I'm using as a music video jukebox while I work. Right now I'm streaming Peter Gabriel videos. It's also feeding me some covers I'd never heard / seen. I can think of so many uses for this.
Nope...It's just Chuck Testa.
Hilarious deadpan amateur commercial. Not for the PETA-wise sensitives.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Piggidy Giggidy!
This toy by j*ryu shows what would happen if Kermit and Ms Piggy took things to their logical conclusion. See his Flicker Stream here. Get info about the "Brain Evolution" Jumping Brain Show here.
Who Shot First?
Long before "Clone Wars" we created this whole card game illustrated with 3d models. I like to think that our little experiment helped encourage Lucas that a TV series could be done in a CGI style. I tend to believe Greedo reached first, but Han drew and shot faster, then Greedo pulled his trigger in the spasm of death.
Don't Shoot!
One of the quick illustrations I did for Decipher's "Wars" TCG. My favorite part is the distressed robot bartender in the background. My friend Chuck Kallenbach was kind enough to pose for this one.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Agent Smith illustration
Eye of the Storm
Monday, September 12, 2011
Birds with Arms
This song is from Fulton Lights EP "3 Songs" which is available here: itunes.com/fultonlights/3songs
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Futurama as Anime
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Stop Motion Flintstone
Here's and excellent stop-motion short featuring Fred Flinstone bowling his best.
The Amazing work of Chris Gallagher
My good friend Chris Gallagher has been working on this Star Wars effects video as a side project for some time. Amazing stuff! Also stay for the trailer about his latest media project at the end. It's a first view of something a lot of people will be talking about soon.
Jonny Quest Stop Motion Masterpiece!
Jonny Quest Opening Titles from Roger D. Evans on Vimeo.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
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